Biography Pamela Horn tells the story of one of the first working men to be elected to Parliament, Joseph Arch (1826–1919) TheThe farmfarm workers’workers’ championchampion oseph Arch (–) was both a pioneering demanding a reduction in the length of their Jagricultural trade union leader and one of the first working day. A new Trade Union Act passed in working men to be elected to Parliament, when he , which explicitly legalised registered unions served as Liberal MP for North-West Norfolk from and provided security for their funds, also gave to and again from until his retire- added impetus to the labour movement. Yet, de- ment from political life in . spite sporadic attempts at organisation among Arch was born on November , in the farm workers in Herefordshire, Leicestershire and south Warwickshire village of Barford. He was the a few other areas, the agricultural labourers – the fourth child and only surviving son of John Arch, a largest single sector of the work force – seemed local farm worker, and his redoubtable wife, unable to combine effectively. In April the Hannah. Hannah was ten years older than her hus- Illustrated London News commented dismissively band and this was her second marriage, her first hus- that they had been ‘hitherto looked upon as the band having died in . It was from his mother lowermost stratum of the industrial classes’. that Arch inherited his early interest in religious It was in these circumstances that early in Febru- nonconformity and his independent attitude. He ary some local labourers went to Arch’s Barford later claimed she was the most important influence home to ask him to hold a meeting in nearby on his life. Wellesbourne to highlight their grievances and to After briefly attending the village school be- press for the formation of a trade union for land tween the ages of six and nine, Arch began work as workers. The vigour and self-confidence of Arch’s a bird scarer in the mid-s. Other land work speech on that occasion, demanding higher pay and followed and by the s he had become a prize- a reduction in the length of the working day, won winning hedger and ditcher, taking contract jobs as the support of those present and led to the holding far afield as Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and of many meetings elsewhere. Night after night Arch Wales. As early as the s he had become a tramped to neighbouring villages addressing enthu- Primitive Methodist local preacher, thereby serving siastic audiences. Soon the message was taken up in an apprenticeship in the difficult art of public other parts of the country, aided by the support of a speaking. In the middle of that decade he spent sympathetic newspaper proprietor, J. E. Matthew precious pennies earned running errands and do- Vincent. He not only publicised the movement in ing odd jobs on the purchase of newspapers, so that his Royal Leamington Chronicle but thereby alerted he could read the speeches of William Gladstone the national press to the agitation. Later in the year and John Bright. From these he formed his life- he established the Labourers’ Union Chronicle, to act as long political opinions. a link for members throughout the country. It con- By the early s Arch’s strong and deter- tinued publication, with some changes in name, un- mined character was recognised by his fellow land til . workers, at a time when pressure was growing for Years later the novelist Thomas Hardy paid trib- an improvement in their living conditions. These ute to Arch’s skill as a leader and effective public were years of rising food prices and of trade union speaker. Hardy listened to him in Dorset, and agitation among many workers, including those in wrote that: the building and engineering industries who were 10 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 37 Winter 2002–03 Nobody who saw and heard Mr. emigration and attempts at mediation, Some Liberal leaders, rather patronis- Arch in his early tours through in the end the lock-out was a de- ingly, saw him as a valuable instrument Dorsetshire will ever forget him and feat for the Union. for mobilising the newly-enfranchised the influence his presence exercised This led not only to disillusion rural voters in favour of their party in over the crowds he drew … The pic- within the membership but to splits the vital county constituencies. Under ture he drew of a comfortable cottage and divisions among the leaders, some the Union’s aegis, for example, in the life as it should be was so cosy, so well of whom resented Arch’s autocratic weeks leading up to the election, mock within the grasp of his listeners’ im- style of leadership. They favoured a ballots were held to instruct the labour- agination, that an old labourer in the federal structure with more autonomy ers in the basic mechanics of voting. crowd held up a coin between his for individual union districts, rather Significantly, too, Chamberlain and finger and thumb exclaiming, ‘Here’s than the centralised approach favoured Collings promoted a so-called ‘unau- zixpence towards that, please God!’ by Arch. In the long run most of these thorised’ political programme designed ‘Towards what?’ said a bystander. regional bodies faded away. Only the to appeal to rural workers, a key ele- ‘Faith, I don’t know that I can spak Kent and Sussex Union carried on ment of this being land reform to give the name o’t, but I know ‘tis a good into the s, placing particular em- the labourer ‘a stake in the soil’. It was thing.’ phasis on emigration to solve labour caricatured by opponents under the disputes. Overall, however, these slogan of ‘three acres and a cow’, but it Arch’s efforts and the activities of other, events seriously weakened the Na- proved popular with many labourers. less prominent, leaders, led in late tional Union and its membership fell The success of these joint efforts was March to the formation of the from the , it achieved in to such that for the only time in their his- National Agricultural Labourers’ Un- , a year later. The onset of agri- tory the Conservatives did worse in ru- ion, with himself as president. The ini- cultural depression, as cheap food im- ral constituencies than in urban areas. It tiative won the enthusiastic backing of ports combined with bad harvests in was doubtless in recognition of Arch’s a number of sympathetic outsiders, es- Britain undermined the prosperity of contribution to this that the National pecially Liberal Party members from most agriculturists, further stiffened Liberal Club organised a banquet in his Birmingham. They included Jesse employers’ resistance to the Union and honour in January . Joseph Cham- Collings, a close political ally and friend its president. Cash wages on the land berlain presided. of Joseph Chamberlain. Within a year fell from the peak achieved in – Arch’s electoral triumph proved membership had reached about ,, , although living standards were still short-lived. When the Liberal Govern- concentrated particularly in the mid- rising because of the cheaper food and ment split over the issue of Home land counties and in East Anglia. manufactured goods now coming on Rule for Ireland, he lost his seat at the The fledgling movement soon en- the market. general election. This was despite countered bitter opposition from farm- Arch himself, meanwhile, continued a letter from William Gladstone urging ers and landowners, not only to its de- to spearhead the struggle to maintain voters in the constituency to continue mands for higher pay but over the fun- and improve workers’ employment to support him. The next few years damental issue of workers’ right to conditions. In the political sphere he were ones of considerable difficulty. combine. Lock-outs and strikes fol- pressed for the vote to be given to rural The Union was very weak, with lowed, culminating in a major dispute householders, to match rights given to membership standing at just over early in , affecting , – , male householders in towns in . , by the end of . In addition unionists, mainly in East Anglia, one of He also gave unstinting support to his there were allegations of corruption the Union’s strongholds. Arch was at hero, William Gladstone, and to the from opponents within the move- the forefront of the resistance to the Liberal Party. That included an en- ment, as well as hostility to his au- employers, addressing meetings in the dorsement of Gladstone’s powerful thoritarian leadership. As regards the affected areas and also undertaking campaign against Turkish atrocities in former charge, surviving accounts fund-raising tours to the North of Eng- Bulgaria in –. Arch also took up make clear that there was no financial land to win support from urban trade the cause of international peace, attend- malpractice. The latter complaint had unionists and others. ing a Workmen’s Peace Association more validity in that he often failed to Arch realised that if the bargaining conference in Paris during . He listen to the views of critics or to make position of the workers vis-à-vis the adopted this pacifist stance despite the concessions to them. farmers was to be strengthened they fact that his eldest son, John, was a ser- At the end of the decade two events must encourage some members to geant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. revived Arch’s fortunes. The first was his emigrate. At the same time there was a In the franchise was finally ex- election to Warwickshire County growing demand for labour in New tended to country householders. The Council in . The second was an Zealand, Australia and Canada.